On August 1,1976, eighteen New Hampshire citizens were arrested for occupying the newly-bulldozed site for the proposed Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. Nine months later, more than 2,000 people repeated the action in a growing non-violent movement that made world headlines and that prompted parallel occupations all over the United States. This scene was taken from the Green Mountain Post Film, “The Last Resort.”

The struggle was sparked when the Public Service Company of New Hampshire-despite the opposition of local communities-broke ground on one of New Hampshire’s most delicate tidal estuaries. Within days nuclear opponents had founded the Clamshell Alliance and pledged themselves to peaceful direct action as a means of stopping construction at Seabrook. Their tactics and their success in organizing set the stage for the public reaction to Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters.

The Last Resort presents the human side of the Seabrook confrontation, balancing the arguments of the strongly pro-nuclear Governor Meldrim Thomson and nuclear utility officials against those of local citizens and project opponents. The film includes frank assessments from local police, area officials and then-candidate Jimmy Carter, as well as footage from key confrontations in Europe, Japan and India.

“The Last Resort” is an exciting and essential primer in understanding the nuclear controversy and the issues-local and global-that are behind it.

Film by Green Mountain Post Films

You can purchase the full length film HERE.